Saturday 21 January 2012


This is where the toilet and cistern will go in the ensuite bathroom.  The cistern (propped up at the moment) needs to be fixed into the straw wall.


One way to do this is to use hazel stakes about 250-300mm long, with one end pointed.



Firstly we marked the location we wanted to fix into the straw by screwing the piece of plywood we want to fix to the clay. (Interestingly it actually fixed quite well into just the clay!)

With a hand spray we wetted the clay plaster around the area we are going to bang in the hazel to make the clay soft.  Clay always remains volatile, it is not like lime or cement where a chemical reaction takes place when it dries.  This means clay is ultimately recyclable and can always be returned to its wet state.  The hazel stake was then very easy to bang into the clay.


We could then smooth the clay around the stake.  Clay really is amazing - how many materials can you seal a hole so easily in?!!



The four hazel stakes to fix the plywood to.


The plywood fixed to the straw...


...and the cistern hung.

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